The Song of Hartgrove Hall: A Novel

New Year's Eve, 1946. Candles flicker, and a gramophone scratches out a tune as guests dance and sip champagne. For one night only, Hartgrove Hall relives better days. Harry Fox-Talbot and his brothers have returned from the war determined to save their once grand home from ruin. But the arrival of beautiful wartime singer Edie Rose tangles the threads of love and duty and leads to a devastating betrayal.

The American Heiress: A Novel

Traveling abroad with her mother at the turn of the 20th century to seek a titled husband, beautiful, vivacious Cora Cash, whose family mansion in Newport dwarfs the Vanderbilts', suddenly finds herself Duchess of Wareham, married to Ivo, the most eligible bachelor in England. Nothing is quite as it seems, however: Ivo is withdrawn and secretive, and the English social scene is full of traps and betrayals. Money, Cora soon learns, cannot buy everything, as she must decide what is truly worth the price in her life and her marriage.

The Girl in the Castle: A Novel

Born on the ninth day of the ninth month in the year 1900, Kitty Deverill is special, as her grandmother has always told her. Built on the stunning green hills of West Cork, Ireland, Castle Deverill is Kitty's beloved home, where many generations of Deverills have also resided. Although she's Anglo-Irish, Kitty's heart completely belongs to the wild countryside of the Emerald Isle, and her devotion to her Irish-Catholic friends - Bridie Doyle, the daughter of the castle's cook; and Jack O'Leary, the vet's son - is unmatched.

A Desperate Fortune

For nearly 300 years, the cryptic journal of Mary Dundas has kept its secrets. Now, amateur codebreaker Sara Thomas travels to Paris to crack the cipher.... Jacobite exile Mary Dundas is filled with longing - for freedom, for adventure, for the family she lost. When fate opens the door, Mary dares to set her foot on a path far more surprising and dangerous than she ever could have dreamed.

Lost Among the Living

England, 1921. Three years after her husband, Alex, disappeared, shot down over Germany, Jo Manders still mourns his loss. Working as a paid companion to Alex's wealthy, condescending aunt, Dottie Forsyth, Jo travels to Wych Elm House, the family's estate in the Sussex countryside. But there is much she never knew about her husband's origins...and the revelation of a mysterious death in the Forsyths' past is just the beginning.

Return of the Rose

Morgan Hayes grows up in the 20th century with a mysterious attraction to a hollow suit of armor that stands in the window of her mother’s antique store. She is 24 years old when she becomes entangled within the armor’s metal plates and is whisked back in time where she is mistaken for a twin sister she knows nothing about. Morgan is forced to marry King Henry’s favored knight, Derek Vanguard, Lord of Braddock Hall. Abandoned by his mother, Derek’s heart is as cold as the stone walls of his castle....

A Rather Lovely Inheritance

This is your life Penny Nichols...Penny Nichols is a historical researcher working on a big-budget film in the south of France when she gets an urgent call. Her Aunt Penelope has just died, and Penny's presence is required in London for the reading of the will. With only a slim recollection of her eccentric aunt, Penny is astonished to learn that not only is she the bona fide heiress - but she's also been invited to put her research skills to work.

Scandalous

When Lady Gabriella Banning receives word that her half brother, the Earl of Wickham, has died on his tea plantation, she faces the reality that she and her younger sisters are suddenly penniless - unless she thinks fast. Arranging Claire’s London season, Gabby pretends that Marcus is still alive, just until Claire can marry a fabulously wealthy nobleman. But when a handsome gentleman arrives claiming to be Marcus, Gabby’s plan backfires. If she exposes this mysterious stranger’s deceit, she exposes her own.

Spinning the Moon

In the Shadow of the Moon: When Laura Truitt first sees the dilapidated plantation house, she's overcome by a sense of familiarity. Inside, the owner claims to have been waiting for years and offers an old photograph of a woman with Laura's face. Soon afterward, when a lunar eclipse inexplicably thrusts Laura back in time to Civil War Georgia, she finds herself fighting not just for her heart but for her very survival.

Florence Grace

Florrie Buckley is an orphan living on the wind-blasted moors of Cornwall. It's a hard existence, but Florrie is content; she runs wild in the mysterious landscape. She thinks her destiny is set in stone. But when Florrie is 14, she inherits a never-imagined secret. She is related to a wealthy and notorious London family: the Graces.

America's First Daughter: A Novel

In a compelling, richly researched novel that draws from thousands of letters and original sources, best-selling authors Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie tell the fascinating, untold story of Thomas Jefferson's eldest daughter, Martha "Patsy" Jefferson Randolph - a woman who kept the secrets of our most enigmatic founding father and shaped an American legacy.

The Angels of Lovely Lane: Lovely Lane, Book 1

It is 1953, and five girls are arriving to start their training at St Angelus Hospital. Dana has escaped from her family farm in Ireland. Victoria is running away from an aristocratic background. Beth is an army brat and throws her lot in with bitchy Celia Forsyth, and Pammy has come from the wrong side of the tracks. When an unknown girl is admitted after a botched backstreet abortion, a tragedy begins to unfold which will rock the world of St Angelus to its foundations.

Habits of the House

As the Season of 1899 comes to an end, the world is poised on the brink of profound, irrevocable change. The Earl of Dilberne is facing serious financial concerns. The ripple effects spread to everyone in the household: Lord Robert, who has gambled unwisely on the stock market and seeks a place in the Cabinet; his unmarried children, Arthur, who keeps a courtesan, and Rosina, who keeps a parrot in her bedroom; Lord Robert’s wife, Isobel, who orders the affairs of the household in Belgrave Square; and Grace, the lady’s maid who orders the life of her mistress.

Secrets of a Charmed Life

Current day, Oxford, England. Young American scholar Kendra Van Zant, eager to pursue her vision of a perfect life, interviews Isabel McFarland just when the elderly woman is ready to give up secrets about the war that she has kept for decades...beginning with who she really is. What Kendra receives from Isabel is both a gift and a burden--one that will test her convictions and her heart.

New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at the French consulate and a new love on the horizon. But Caroline's world is forever changed when Hitler's army invades Poland in September 1939 - and then sets its sights on France. An ocean away from Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, senses her carefree youth disappearing as she is drawn deeper into her role as courier for the underground resistance movement.

The Year of Living Scandalously,

When Declan O’Connor, Earl of Donnelly, arrives at Hadley Green to meet with Lily Boudine, the new countess of Ashwood, he knows instantly that the lovely woman who welcomes him is not who she pretends to be. In an attempt to avoid an unwanted marriage, Keira Hannigan has assumed her cousin’s identity and is staying at the estate while Lily is abroad. When Declan threatens to expose her, Keira convinces him to guard her secret....

The Bookshop on the Corner

Nina Redmond is a librarian with a gift for finding the perfect books for her readers. But can she write her own happy ever after? In this valentine to readers, librarians, and book lovers the world over, the New York Times best-selling author of Little Beach Street Bakery returns with a funny, moving new novel for fans of Meg Donohue, Sophie Kinsella, and Nina George's The Little Paris Bookshop.

The Storms of War

In the idyllic early summer of 1914, life is good for the de Witt family. Rudolf and Verena are planning the wedding of their daughter Emmeline while their eldest son, Arthur, is studying in Paris, and Michael is just back from his first term at Cambridge. Celia, the youngest of the de Witt children, is on the brink of adulthood and secretly dreams of escaping her carefully mapped-out future and exploring the world.

One True Loves

In her 20s Emma Blair marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse. They build a life for themselves, far away from the expectations of their parents and the people of their hometown. They travel the world together, living life to the fullest. On their first wedding anniversary, Jesse is on a helicopter over the Pacific when it goes missing. Just like that, Jesse is gone forever.

The Kitchen House: A Novel

Orphaned while onboard ship from Ireland, seven-year-old Lavinia arrives on the steps of a tobacco plantation where she is to live and work with the slaves of the kitchen house. Under the care of Belle, the master's illegitimate daughter, Lavinia becomes deeply bonded to her adopted family, though she is set apart from them by her white skin. Eventually, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, where the master is absent and the mistress battles opium addiction.

It's 1945: When the critically wounded Captain Cooper Ravenal is brought to a private hospital on Manhattan's Upper East Side, young Dr. Kate Schuyler is drawn into a complex mystery that connects three generations of women in her family to a single extraordinary room in a Gilded Age mansion. Who is the woman in Captain Ravenel's portrait miniature who looks so much like Kate? And why is she wearing the ruby pendant handed down to Kate by her mother?

The Girl on the Cliff

Troubled by recent loss, Grania Ryan has returned to Ireland and the arms of her loving family. It is here, on a cliff edge, that she first meets a young girl, Aurora. Strangely drawn to Aurora, Grania discovers that their families are deeply entwined. From a bittersweet romance in wartime London to a troubled relationship in contemporary New York, the Ryans and the Lisles have been entangled for a century.

The Milliner's Secret

June 1940. As Paris, the City of Light, approaches its darkest hour, a young woman treads the line between survival and collaboration. Londoner Cora Masson has reinvented herself as Coralie de Lirac, using a false claim to aristocratic birth to launch herself as a fashionable milliner. When the Nazis invade, the influence of a high-ranking lover protects her business. But the cruel demands of war - and of love - cannot be kept at bay forever.

The Knockoff: A Novel

When Imogen returns to work at Glossy after six months away, she can barely recognize her own magazine. Eve, fresh out of Harvard Business School, has fired "the gray hairs", put the managing editor in a supply closet, stopped using the landlines, and hired a bevy of manicured and questionably attired underlings who text and tweet their way through meetings.

Publisher's Summary

An irresistible World War II story of a forbidden upstairs-downstairs romance in a great English country house.

It’s the spring of 1938 and no longer safe to be a Jew in Vienna. Nineteen-year-old Elise Landau is forced to leave her glittering life of parties and champagne to become a parlor maid in England. She arrives at Tyneford, the great house on the bay, where servants polish silver and serve drinks on the lawn. But war is coming, and the world is changing. When Kit, the son of Tyneford’s master, returns home, he and Elise strike up an unlikely friendship that will transform Tyneford - and Elise - forever.

A pageturning tale of family, love, loss, and the power of the human spirit set against the perennially popular backdrop of World War II England, Natasha Solomons’ The House at Tyneford is upmarket romantic fiction at its best.

Natasha Solomons is a screenwriter and the internationally bestselling author of Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English and Mr. Rosenblum’s List. She lives with her husband in Dorset, England.

I know I've just read a good book when I can't wait to share it with my friends.

The publisher's summary makes it seem like a typically-formulaic romance novel. IT IS NOT. For one thing, it's pretty clean. No bodice-ripping scenes involved, but there is some "colorful dialog" just to keep things "realistic". Normally, I don't dig romance novels, but my daughter raved about it, so I gave it a listen. It is the first book by Natasha Solomons that I have listened to, but it won't be the last. She is such a gifted writer. Her style is descriptive without being verbose which, as I'm sure any writer knows, can be a challenge. I would compare her writing to that of Susanna Kearsley because it has that same overall sense of elegant melancholy. She made me feel such compassion for Elise, who just didn't fit in anywhere. I was able to sense her loneliness and profound loss without pitying her. This is one of those books that I wanted to stretch on into eternity. The characters are well-developed, but not overly so. The author did her job well, leaving me wanting more.

Now, about the narrator: she usually grates on my nerves. I forgot that I had promised myself never to listen to anything she narrates ever again, but I decided that I wasn't going to let her ruin the book for me. To give credit where it is due, she didn't do a bad job with this book, aside from not voicing men very well (it IS difficult for a woman to read masculine dialog). In fact, there are some scenes that just would not have had the proper pathos had I just read the book. The scene where Elise first meets Kit (while she's trying to expres her frustration by shouting at the sea, using all of the English swear words she knows) would not have been nearly as funny either if I hadn't listened to the audiobook.

Without giving away any of the plotlines, I'd like to add that you should have a box of tissues handy before you listen. I wish someone would have warned me ahead of time.

I didn’t realize I even liked this book until I got to the end and found myself sobbing in the car on the way to work. Clearly it affected me. So that’s the good news. If you listen to this I think you will care for the characters, possibly even despite yourself. But I picked this up because it had been billed to me as “an ode to the old English country house” and “for Downton Abbey addicts.” But I’m not sure it was either of these things. Despite the title, the house didn’t feel like the central character. (Perhaps the visual evocation would have been stronger had I been reading?) But I felt it was the onslaught of history - awful, looming, threatening, and oversees – that served as the main influence in this book. It was the background horror of the Holocaust that brought me to tears.

This novel is about a young Jewish woman from “the smart set” in Vienna who takes a position as a parlour maid in an English House in 1938. While she is sheltered from the actualities of life back in Vienna - the silence created by the slowing postal system, the delayed appearance of her parents, the ineffectiveness of money sent to literally pay their ransom out of Austria, these things make up the negative space that consumes this novel. But the central love stories that take up the day to day at Tyneford, the fussy butler and particular housekeeper, even the awful society visitors – they don’t stand a chance against the things that you aren’t seeing and hearing. I guess that’s why it felt like a vacuum to me - and not an entirely satisfying one.

Where does The House at Tyneford rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It ranks high and I have never written a review before. I felt though, after reading some of the reviews regarding the narrator, that I had to say my piece!

What was one of the most memorable moments of The House at Tyneford?

I listen to many audible books and have listened and enjoyed for years. I listen while in the car and sometimes hate to reach my destination. I generally find that I have to listen to the beginning of a story more than once - as my mind is on my driving, it sometimes requires an extra listen to establish who is who and what is what. I found the very beginning a touch difficult for that reason. I did not listen again to the very beginning but found myself able to get into the story quickly and familiarize myself with the characters easily. I was immediately brought into the story. I am now at the end - not quite finished - but sadly, I really do not want it to end. I am so touched by this story. I read so many books from this time period - perhaps being Jewish, the subject is exceptionally near to my heart. For me, this was a very different take on it - so many things to realize about this time in history - things I have never thought about before. I wouldn't want to tell the story - it's better for you to just read and enjoy and savor yourself.

What about Justine Eyre’s performance did you like?

Now this is the reason that I am indeed writing my first review. When I read the reviews I discovered many listeners who were very unhappy with the performance. I listen to so many audible books - while I am always listening to a story myself, my husband and I are always sharing a story together - we are in the car a lot :)I love Justine Eyre's performance - it is fantastic - I am totally involved with the characters because of her - her accents are wonderful - the feelings that she portrays with her words - I love it. She is another reason why I will be so unhappy to finish this story. I will search for other books that she has narrated. I have come to look forward to hearing her voice alone as much as the story. I am so dismayed to read the negative things that people have said.My son in law is a writer and of course I love his books. I understand how important the narrator is and I was disappointed with the narration of one of his books (my lips are sealed - I will never tell). The interesting thing though was that so many people LOVED the narration of his book. So I guess it is a very personal thing.For me, the narration of this book added to the story - I loved it.

Not sure how I feel about this book I know I didn't love it but it did keep my attention which can be a difficult task. I just felt the story was kind of boring not much to it and a bit predictable. However I did like the characters so I wanted to listen and find out what happens. It also took a while to get use to the narrator but once I sped up the speed of the book to 1.5 it was good.

This book didn't have the grace of Downton Abby, but the story was solid. Certainly a coming of age story in time of WWII. I would recommend the book. It provides yet another story of how people existed during WWII and the heartache and anxiety that was felt by all.

What other book might you compare The House at Tyneford to and why?

I recently read War Brides and found that it gave me good background for what was happening outside of big houses like Tyneford. The Distant Hours, by Kate Morton, was a similar story of living in the big estate during war. I think I enjoyed Tyneford the least of these three, actually. Still, I did enjoy it and would recommend it.

Who was the most memorable character of The House at Tyneford and why?

Elise, the main character was the most memorable. It was her story, her life we followed.

I really liked this book. I have read other books and seen plays about this time in history when Jewish children were shipped to England to be safe during WW II. This story brought elements to light that I hadn't really thought about before (how it separated siblings, how the children were so worried about their parents, and so on). It is beautifully written and read. A very good listen.

The story line will keep you captive. The characters are somewhat so real, that you want to shake them, or you will want to step in and say your two cents, the characters will make you feel with them. The performance is good, not the best, but definitely good. Get this book you will not regret it!!

I seriously loved this story ! It is reminiscent of Downton Abbey (story takes place mainly on an English country estate just prior to and during WWII) but it's characters and plot stand on their own. Lovely discriptions of happy family times in Vienna before the war, and gorgeous discriptions of the rugged English coast, the story has a romantic sheen that is slowly dimmed as the reality of war intrudes even to this remote English village. And Justine Eyre's narration was perfection.

The story as a whole is good, probably a bit too many twists and turns, but you become satisfied with the outcome of the main character. It could probably be a much shorter book, instead of having long drags of empty words. Its not a captivating book that will leave you in thought for days but a nice love and coming of age story.